Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Signs of the times

While waiting at a stoplight downtown, I glanced up and saw two people swinging on a platform held by a crane. They were painting, doing finishing touches around the new Hampton Inn sign (another “sign of the times” in Boise). Up high, in the blue, blue sky on a sunny autumn day. Too bad I didn’t have my camera with me.

“A bunch of needlessly delicate dog water dishes…”: A description by an editor of a local weekly rag about an exhibit of blown glass by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly that was shown at the local art museum. I read an AP report today that stated researchers have found strong evidence that too much testosterone kills brain cells, leaving some with brain damage and impaired judgment…

In other Idaho news: Another AP report told of an unlucky couple who bought a house and property near a small town in eastern Idaho only to find the property infested with snakes. According to a herpetologist from Idaho Fish & Game, the area appears to be a kind of winter “resting ground” for snakes. They come there and “ball up” together to conserve heat as the weather gets colder.

A crescent moon was rising in the southwest as we walked at dusk. At this hour, in the night sky, Ursa Major, “Great Bear” (aka the Big Dipper), is to the north, Capricornus, “the sea goat,” to the south. A little about Capricornus from Wikipedia:

The constellation is often depicted as a sea-goat, a goat with a fish's tail. One myth says that when the goat-god Pan was attacked by the monster Typhon, he dove into the Nile; the parts above the water remained a goat, but those under the water transformed into a fish.In Sumeria, the constellation was associated with the god Ea or (Enki), who brought culture out of the sea to humankind.